🇻🇪
dinner
Pabellón Criollo
Venezuela's national dish — a harmonious plate of shredded beef caraotas (black beans), white rice and sweet fried plantain that together tell the story of the country's heritage.
⏱ 150 min🔥 720 kcalMedium
★4.8(934)
7 recipes using tomatoes — Pabellón criollo, arepas, hallacas — rich, corn-based comfort food.
These 7 venezuelan tomatoes recipes are ready in about 173 minutes on average, with 380–720 kcal per serving, and 0% are rated easy enough for a weeknight. Every recipe includes exact ingredient quantities, step-by-step instructions and full nutrition per serving.
Venezuelan cuisine — Pabellón criollo, arepas, hallacas — rich, corn-based comfort food — brings its own distinctive techniques and seasonings to every ingredient it touches. When Venezuelan cooks work with tomatoes, they reach for its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends, and the techniques that come up most across these recipes are simmering, boiling, frying and caramelising.
Sweet-acidic fruit that forms the backbone of sauces, stews and salads across nearly every cuisine. In this collection it's most often cooked with ground cumin, onions, ripe plantains, garlic, long-grain white rice and pork shoulder. The dishes here span venezuelan classics ready in as little as 110 minutes to slower, more involved cooking that rewards a relaxed afternoon.
Reader favourite: Hallaca is the highest-rated dish in this collection at 4.9★ from 890 ratings.
Venezuela's national dish — a harmonious plate of shredded beef caraotas (black beans), white rice and sweet fried plantain that together tell the story of the country's heritage.
Venezuela's Christmas treasure — corn dough filled with a rich stew of beef, pork, and chicken with olives, capers, and raisins, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed.
Venezuela's dramatic black roast beef — beef braised in a dark, glossy sauce of papelón (raw sugar), red wine, and vegetables until deeply caramelized and intensely flavored.
Venezuela's definitive national plate — white rice, black beans, shredded beef (carne mechada) and sweet fried plantain arranged together. The four elements represent Venezuela's racial and cultural heritage.
Venezuela's most important dish — a complex Christmas tamale of seasoned corn dough filled with a rich beef, pork and chicken stew with olives, raisins and capers, wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. A labour of love and love made labour.
Venezuela's national dish — shredded beef, black beans, fried plantain and white rice on one plate.
A four-quadrant plate of slow-shredded beef in tomato sofrito, black beans, white rice and fried sweet plantains — the colours of the Venezuelan flag arranged on every Sunday table.
Ripe tomatoes smell fragrant at the stem and give slightly to a gentle squeeze. For cooking out of season, good-quality tinned tomatoes often beat pale fresh ones.
Store at room temperature, never the fridge, which kills their flavour and texture. Score and blanch to slip off skins; salting slices draws out excess water for salads.
A low-calorie source of vitamin C, potassium and the antioxidant lycopene — which actually becomes more available when tomatoes are cooked.
Most of these 7 Venezuelan tomatoes recipes are ready in around 173 minutes from start to finish. The quickest, Pabellón Criollo (Venezuelan National Dish), takes about 110 minutes, while the slower-cooked dishes run up to 240 minutes.
Across this collection they range from about 380 to 720 kcal per serving, averaging 574 kcal — Hallacas (Venezuelan Christmas Tamales) is the lightest option at 380 kcal.
Pabellón Criollo (Venezuelan National Dish) is a great place to start — it's rated medium and comes together in about 110 minutes. 0% of the recipes here are beginner-friendly.
In these recipes, tomatoes is most often paired with ground cumin, onions, ripe plantains, garlic, long-grain white rice and pork shoulder. Venezuelan kitchens also lean on its own regional aromatics, fats and signature spice blends.